Hi - this is my first post so hope I’m doing this right!
My dad is 74 and was first diagnosed with bowel cancer about 4 years ago. He had an op to remove the tumour and has been having chemo regularly ever since. I’ve found it hard to straight answers from him or my mum - even from the first diagnosis. However from things he has said I have picked up that he now has a shadow in his liver (I’m assuming that this is a cancerous tumour?) and he had a blockage in his small intestine (another tumour?) I’m having to draw my own conclusions. Anyway in November his oncologist changed his chemo because she said it was no longer doing what it should. He only managed 1 lot because he got an infection that needed antibiotics and then he was put on steroids for two weeks - which he finished 2 days ago. But since November he has been declining rapidly. He’s not eating much, the weight is dropping off him, he looks dehydrated, and he says he just feels really weak. He said yesterday that he’s finding the stairs a struggle and it took him over an hour to get dressed. My mum rang me this morning and said that he’s had diarrhoea and also that he collapsed in the bathroom during the night - he doesn’t know if he just fell or passed out but he ended up on the floor. I really think he needs to be seen by somebody clinical - but he doesn’t really seem to have details of anybody to contact. Who should he have numbers for and who am I best talking to? I’ve managed to make an appointment with his GP for later today but given that she rang him earlier and said he sounds like he’s picking up a bit (!) I can’t see her being much use. I’ve had to ring the surgery back to see if they have a wheelchair because he doesn’t think he can walk from my car to the surgery - this is just so unlike him. He also has a hospital appointment with the gastro team tomorrow morning but I don’t know if he needs to speak to someone from gastro or oncology. A. I asked him if he would like me to take him to A and E but he says he just can’t deal with the waiting around for endless hours. I feel like I should be doing more to help him - but I just don’t know what to!
